Tai

The Tai, or Zhuang–Tai, languages form the principal branch of the Kra–Dai family, stretching from Guangxi and Guizhou in southern China to the Shan hills of Myanmar and the kingdoms of Laos and Siam. Comparative linguists derive them from Proto-Kra–Dai, placed in the lower Yangtze valley.

Chinese texts of the first millennium BC called the non-Sinitic peoples of the south the Yue; the Song of the Yue Boatman, transcribed in Chinese characters in 528 BC, is among the earliest records of their speech.

The Zhuang split from the southwestern languages between the second century BC and the sixth century AD, and Southwestern Tai speakers dispersed between the 700s and 900s. The southwestern peoples adopted Brahmi-derived alphabets, with the Thai script appearing in the 1200s, while the Zhuang wrote in Chinese-derived characters known as Sawndip.